Getting Rich on Human Suffering

Years ago there was a guy I knew who owned and operated a small finance company. He loaned money to individuals, generally people who couldn’t get a loan from a bank because of various reasons—inconsistent employment, insufficient annual income, bad credit history, etc. Of course, he charged them a higher...

Having Faith to Work the Plan

Many of us have been taught that Bible doesn’t allow any mixture of works in the appropriation of our salvation, but Paul, James and, especially, Jesus don’t necessarily support that contention. Part of the problem is that we treat gaining salvation as a single point in time—one second I wasn’t saved, the...

Working Out Your Own Salvation

One of the central tenets of Protestant theology is the idea that salvation is given by grace alone and achieved through faith alone; it is impossible to earn it through good works. This is as good a paraphrase as there is of Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not...

A Fresh Look at the Proverbs 31 Woman

This week I have to come up with a sermon for Mother’s Day. This is will be my 28th Mother’s Day message, and that’s a problem. There just aren’t that many ways of saying, “Mom’s are great! Go, Mom’s!” And there aren’t that many Scriptures to draw from. I’ve not tried to count, but trust me, there aren’t...

Christmas and Easter Christians

You’ve probably heard about “Christmas and Easter Christians”—those Christians who only show up to church for the big, important services of Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday. Sometimes they are called (somewhat pejoratively if not self-righteously) “chreasters” or CEO Christians(Christmas/Easter Only). For...

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